


A Turks Whumptober 8-through-12

by CN_Delta



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Abandonment, Blood, Broken Bones, Gen, Guns, Self-Esteem Issues, Turks (Compilation of FFVII)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:40:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27002887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CN_Delta/pseuds/CN_Delta
Summary: ... Anybody watching from afar would have seen a dark suit speckled in a thick white coating, pale skin blending in with the snow around him, vermillion hair disappearing to the surging storm, hopelessly scouring for the one thing he had left. ...The mission goes bad, and now Reno’s on his own.For Whumptober 2020, spanning Day 8 through Day 12.
Relationships: Implied Reno/Rude
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33





	A Turks Whumptober 8-through-12

“......Rude.....”

Everything was dark and Reno’s speech came out as a dry, harsh whisper.He was cold, too cold, and the only light was a hazy, nearly-opaque grey-blue from the mouth of the cave nearby.

He cursed to himself, struggling to move - they should have  _ known  _ there was a trap.One wrong step in the snow while running back to the chopper and they’d both fallen twelve feet down into the cave below, nothing but rock to break their fall.Rude had tumbled and rolled; Reno, for all his years of climbing and leaping from ridiculous heights, should have been the one to land safely.

He wasn’t.With no warning or preparation, he’d gone straight down on his leg and  _ felt _ his shin bone crack in a way it never should have.

The rebels spared no time in descending upon them.In any other situation, they could easily have fought their way out.But without the ability to stand Reno could only launch attacks with magic and his e-mag rod, and it wasn’t long before two of the enemies grabbed him by the arms and put a gun to his head.

Rude stopped dead in his tracks.Through all the pain, Reno gave him a look,  _their_ look,  the one that silently conveyed  _ we can get out of this - just roll with it. _

“What do you want?” Rude bellowed, slowly dropping his fists to his sides.

“Two less Shinra bastards!” one of the assailants crowed back.

Reno clicked his tongue, looking around - there were maybe six of them left.Six rag-tag mercenaries versus two well-trained Shinra operatives.He liked those odds.“Nah, sorry guys, that ain’t gonna work for us.We’re worth way more alive than dead - how ‘bout you just take me?”

One of the mercs cackled at him.“ _ Take _ you?Why would we  _ take _ you when we could just  _ kill _ you?”

“Pfft - don’t you guys know who we  _are_?”

“Yeah, you’re  _ Turks _ .”The one holding the gun cocked it and pressed the barrel back into his temple.“You fuckers are disposable, just like old man Veld was.”

“ _ Reno _ .”Rude stood stone still, but his partner notice his fists balling up with just a slight tremble of anger to them.Veld was still a sore spot and they’d put pressure on it. _ Bad _ move.

“S’all right, Rude.Better me than you, eh?”

These poor bastards were about to find out the hard way why you didn’t fuck with the Turks - but you _especially_ didn’t fuck with  them together as a team.

“Tell the Chief I went out the way I lived.”His hand shifted slightly, grabbing his mag-rod by the shaft just above the hilt.“ _ Electrically _ .”

With faster than light speed, he bashed the mag-rod across the face of the man with the gun.The rod’s trigger was depressed by a breaking nose and let loose a surge of energy that shocked the three of them - Reno and his two attackers - as well as anyone within a five foot radius.The gun went off and Reno felt a slug hit him squarely in the chest; another bullet to be removed surgically, another pain he wouldn’t feel as the electric surge knocked him unconscious.

But now he was awake, and not in the stiff sheets or sterile smell of a hospital bed; he was on the dank, frozen floor of the cave they’d been assaulted in.And he was alone.

“... _Rude?!_ ”The panic swept over him and he lurched forwards, attempting to stand - but the shock of pain from his broken leg sent him back to the ground with a curse. _ This isn’t right, something happened, what went wrong?! _

Beside him were three dead men in various states of bloodied, their broken necks obvious.Rude had probably gotten to them before they could even think, but that left three others, and his partner, unaccounted for.

Groaning, he slid across the dirt to grab the pistol off one of them and check it for rounds.Three were missing; one was likely lodged in his own flesh, but where had the others gone..?And if this guy had a gun, then they were likely  _ all _ armed...

His mag-rod was on the ground next to the dead men and he snatched it up, looping the security strap around his wrist.He wasn’t giving up until he found Rude, alive or dead, and he’d be damned if he let anyone else find him without enough of an armory to take down Bahamut himself.

The crawl to the cave entrance felt like it took an eternity - he had no choice but to drag his busted leg behind him, and with every inch cursed himself for being so  _ stupid _ , so  _ sloppy _ , so fucking  _ unprepared _ .Rude made him feel invincible, they were so synchronized with one another and so perfect together that sometimes he forgot that the limitations of their own bodies weren’t tied to one another.Veld would have handed his ass to him, and Tseng... he might not be that forgiving, either.

Using the mag-rod to knock the wall of snow away from the cave’s entrance, Reno was greeted by a vast white expanse against an angry grey backdrop, any visibility marred by the raging snowstorm outside.He huffed and tipped his goggles down off his forehead, using them to shield his eyes from the storm as he yelled out, “ _ Rude! _ ”

Nothing but the howl of the wind answered him.

Undeterred, he dragged himself out into the snow and got up on all fours to look around.There were two nearby piles in the snow, indicative of bodies covered by the downfall, and then red.Faintly, showing up in his goggles as darkened streaks of snow headed in the opposite direction of the cave, but he knew exactly what it was - blood.And fairly fresh.

“ _Fuck_... ”With an angry growl he pushed himself forwards, ignoring the sharp pain in his chest, the throbbing of his leg, the absolute terror he was doing his best to convince himself was just adrenaline.Rude had to still be alive - Rude was the better Turk, the practical Turk, the one who would always escape with life and limb intact.Reno was reckless, headstrong, put his duty over his well being... no, if he was still alive then Rude was  _ absolutely _ alive.

He fucking _had_ to be.

The storm raged on as he forced himself through the snow like a tortoise through sand, the frozen wind whipping across his face and stinging the parts of him that weren’t already injured.He found the air hard to breathe at times and had to duck his face behind the lapel of his jacket, laughing at the irony of how he always refused to button it or his shirt closed, how they’d specifically tailored his jacket to sit low and open after years of him toying with dress code, and  _ now _ it was finally a problem. _You’re gonna catch a cold_ , Cissnei had mocked him. _ Look how nice Rude looks, you should take a lesson from him! _

He and Rude were from different pedigrees.She knew that.He’d confided in her, over countless nights of drinks and drunken sleepovers, exactly where he’d come from.What he’d  _ done _ .How Veld had recruited him after watching him run down and beat bloody the same “customer” who’d left the scar on his cheek - the scar that he’d later get tattooed over and matched.There was never any shame despite her expression of pity; he knew exactly what he was. _ Can take the rat outta the slums, but you’ll never take the slums outta the rat. _

Veld had seen potential, something he had never seen in himself.And Rude had guided him, helped hone him, been the support that raised him up to the second highest ranked Turk in the company.

“Rude...”

His hand touched on something in the snow, frost gripping his fingers as he struggled to uncover it - Rude’s sunglasses.

Broken.

There was a twinge in the back of his head and he choked on his breath, pressing his chin down into his chest.Ice bit at the corners of his eyes where tears formed, but he refused to let them fall; giving up meant the worst, meant Rude was gone, that he was alone and worse still, _he’d_ _ let Rude down and cost him his life. _

He _wasn’t giving up_.

Anybody watching from afar would have seen a dark suit speckled in a thick white coating, pale skin blending in with the snow around him, vermillion hair disappearing to the surging storm, hopelessly scouring for the one thing he had left.

The darkened trail was starting to disappear in the snow quicker than his senses were being lost to the frigid air.Every few pulls he’d brush numb fingertips through the powder, uncovering the blood trail and following it forwards, leaving a red-stained path in his wake from the still-bleeding wound of his chest.Any sign was good enough; he  _ had _ to believe it was Rude’s blood he was following, that he would find him alive, standing there, asking “What took you so long?” with a grin as though it were another routine mission.

Until he reached the end.The end of the blood trail, the end of the path - at a cliff that no one could have survived a fall from.There was another snow pile here, another body buried by the squall, and for a minute Reno almost gave up hope.He was so cold and so tired that he couldn’t stop himself from crying anymore; his chest heaved in painful sobs, the sounds leaving him more gross than pathetic as he wheezed in agony and sadness, reaching towards the pile. _ Please, don’t fucking do this to me, don’t... _

He barely had control of his limbs anymore; his tears were the only bit of warmth left, and even that was stolen before they had a chance to fall.Quaking fingers touched the white powder and shook it away, bit by bit, until a face revealed itself -

It wasn’t Rude.

It  _ wasn’t fucking Rude! _

With a laugh he rolled from his side to his back, staring up at the falling snow as it started to coat the lenses of his goggles.The pain was almost gone now - there was just a groggy feeling in his head and a mild sting in his face and hands.

Rude was somewhere else, and he was ok.He  _ had _ to be ok.

“ _You’re Turks - you fuckers are disposable!_ ” the man had said.

Reno knew that was true.In his heart, he always knew he was disposable.

But Rude-

Rude was  _not_.

He smiled, pressing his frost-bitten face into his sleeve . For him, with no energy left to continue and no rescue in sight, this mission was over.

Partner could take it from here.

————

The sun was high and so incredibly bright, and wonderfully,  _ wonderfully _ warm.

Reno was sitting in the grass somewhere, his back up against a tree trunk.He wasn’t quite sure where it was, but it all felt familiar; even the chirps of the birds above him sounded like a comforting song he’d heard a million times before.

In the distance, a dark figure loped towards him on all fours.In any other situation he’d have gotten up, taken on a defensive posture, maybe even tried to run away.But something told him this wasn’t anything to be afraid of, and so he sat calmly and watched as the creature got close enough that he could make out its features.

It was a black panther, its inky coat glistening in the sunshine as it bounded to where he sat.Two large paws came up and wrapped his shoulders, knocking him onto his back - but there were no claws or teeth, just the enormous feline rumbling with purrs as it bunted its face against his.

“There you are.”

Rude was suddenly standing over him, one ungloved hand extended.“C’mon Reno, time to get up.”

Had he been there the whole time?The panther reacted, untangling itself from Reno and nudging him with its strong snout.He slowly sat up, dusting himself off, then reached out to take Rude’s hand.“Where we goin’?”

“You’ll see.Come on.”Rude clasped his other hand around Reno’s and gave him a gentle tug. “You’ve gotta get up.”

Slowly the landscape around him darkened, and the birdsong slowed into a steady rhythm - still familiar, somehow changing in pitch, causing him to wince as he tried to place it in his mind.

“...c’mon Reno.Get up.”

He squeezed Rude’s hand and heard a soft exhale in the darkness.

“There you are.”

“...yeah, ‘m here.”The words came out as a slur and Reno blinked hard, twice, before realizing his eyes weren’t fully open. “...Rude?”

“It’s me, partner.”

“Rude...”He had to force his eyes to open all the way, and it took him a long minute to register his surroundings.The chirping of the birds was the steady set of beeps from one of a slew of monitors connected to his chest; the soft, warm grass were the blankets he’d been wrapped in on his hospital bed.

But Rude was there.He was real.Draped with a thin blanket, pillow resting on the chair behind his back, still clutching one of Reno’s hands in both of his own.“Hey, Reno,” he smiled, and bent his head down to brush what looked like a tear-stained cheek across his suit jacket.

“...fuck you cryin’ for?”As if he hadn’t already been sobbing over the loss of his partner - no, the  _ idea _ of the loss of his partner.“C’mon now, Rude... y’know you ain’t gettin’ rid of me that easy.”

“You’re lucky that we-“Rude stopped himself mid-reprimand and sighed quietly, taking off his sunglasses to wipe his eyes.“...Reno, why didn’t you  _ stay _ in that cave?”

“...you were gone, man.”Closing his eyes, Reno took a shaky breath.“You were gone.I thought - maybe you were... maybe you needed help.Yanno?”

“I  _did_. Tseng found me with two bullets in me.When I woke up I told them you were  _in the cave_. Except you  _ weren’t _ .”Rude snorted, putting his glasses back on.“... you really dragged yourself out in the damn snow to try and find me.”

“I thought you were  _ dying! _ ”It came out louder and angrier than Reno had meant it to, and he recoiled into the pillows.“...I thought you were fuckin’ dying, ok?I thought - maybe I could find you, maybe things would be all right if I could just  _ get _ to you in time.”

“And then we could have  _ both _ died from exposure.”

“It would be better than trying to  _ live _ knowing I _fuckin’_ _ let you die! _ ”There were the tears again, and Reno buried his face in the stiff pillowcase to try and hide it.“...sorry.I’m sorry.”

“Reno, you didn’t  _ let _ me do anything.”Rude reached out and gripped his hand.“I lured them out of there to keep them away from  _ you _ , because that’s what you trust me to do , _to keep you safe_. But I need you to trust me to keep  _ myself _ safe, and I need to trust that _you’ll_ keep  _ yourself _ safe.”

He sniffled and nodded into the pillow.

“No more of this reckless disregard for your own safety bullshit, no more throwing yourself out there like some kind of sacrifice.If it weren’t for Darkstar they wouldn’t even have  _ found _ _you_ in time.”

That gave Reno pause, and he finally lifted his head back up with a chuckle.“...the fuckin’  _ dog _ _?_ ”

“Yeah - you know, the one that loves to bite you on the  ass? ”Grinning, Rude brushed a stray tear away from Reno’s cheek.“Tseng called in a favor when they didn’t find you at the cave, it was faster than trying to cover all that ground on foot in the storm.”

He raised his eyebrows.“Yeah, but the Veep’s  _personal _ _dog?_ Mighty big favor.”

Rude shrugged.“She knows your scent best.And I don’t pretend to know what goes on between the Director and the VP.”

“...right, just like people don’t pretend to know what goes on between us.”Reno winked and then pulled idly on the bandage covering the wound in his chest.“Heh... more scars to add to the collection.”

“For both of us.”

“And my leg?”

“Don’t know what type of healing they used, but they said it should be fine in a week or two.”

An absent nod.“...how much longer I gotta stay here?”

“Until they release you, Reno.”

He snorted, displeased.“How long has it  _ been? _ ”

“Three days.”

“...an’ you... you’ve been here the whole time?”

“Yup.”Rude reached out and swept some of the messy red hairs away from Reno’s face.“Not leaving you alone again.”

Smiling, Reno closed his eyes; he could definitely go for a long, long time without _being_ alone again.“...thanks, partner.”

**Author's Note:**

> There’s a *lot* to unpack here but instead I’m just gonna leave this with an ATHF reference.
> 
> Doctor Weird: GENTLEMEN, BEHOLD! I have projected my abandonment and self-worth issues onto this FICTIONAL CHARACTER!
> 
> Steve: Yeeeaaahhhh... get therapy.
> 
> (Also, Darkstar is the goodest girl.)  
> ((And shout out to the TsengRu crew!))
> 
> Find me as @TurkRaptor on Twitter! ...I promise I’m not this grim on there.


End file.
